If there’s ever a time to focus on wearable technology with medical applications, 2020 is the year to do it.
Due to the pandemic’s disruption to its supply chain, Apple (AAPL) couldn’t make a new iPhone in time for this year’s September product reveal. Instead, the consumer tech giant is meeting demand with a new Apple Watch at its online event called “Time Flies.” The company also unveiled a new iPad.
The event begins on Tuesday at 10 a.m. Pacific Time or 1 p.m. Eastern Time. You can watch the live stream on Apple’s website.
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Apple Watch Series 6 ($399)
As expected, Apple unveiled the Apple Watch Series 6, a successor to the high-end Series 5 with faster processor and improved health and design features.
Blood oxygen detection: The new smartwatch comes with a health feature called blood oxygen detection, which allows you measure blood oxygen levels in just 15 seconds using red and infrared light, as well as blood color-reading algorithms.
Watch face customization: The Series 6 enables more watch face customizations than the previous version. Some of the new options include a GMT face, which shows multiple time zones, a “Count Up” face that lets you track time, a custom artist made face and a Memoji face.
The “solo loop” watch band: The new Apple Watch features a minimalistic, one-loop silicon wrist band that can stretch to fit individual wrists. The band comes in seven colors. There’s also a braided version made of silicone thread yarn.
Family Setup: The new Family Setup feature allows you to control multiple Apple Watches in a family from just one iPhone. Previous Family Setup could only pair one iPhone with one Apple Watch.
No USB adapter in box: The new Apple Watch will not come with the USB power adapter. Apple said the change is part of its carbon footprint reduction initiative. So, good luck finding your own Apple Watch charger!
Apple Watch SE ($279)
On the less expensive side, Apple also unveiled the Apple Watch SE, an update on the three-year-old Apple Watch Series 3.
Apple says the SE is up to two times faster than the Series 3, thanks its S5 chip, and comes with many of the old watch’s popular features, including sleep tracking, fall detection, compass and an always-on altimeter.
Like the Series 6, the Apple Watch SE runs on Apple’s newest smartwatch operating system, watchOS7.
Both SE and Series 6 are available in store and online on Friday, September 18.